Posted on 10/09/2005 3:50:59 PM PDT by dennisw
Is it simple selling or selling out? We report on a band at odds over ad revenue
THE drummer of the Doors has infuriated his former bandmates by turning down nearly $20 million to use their music to sell computers and cars.
John Densmore has a legal right to veto the use of the bands music for advertising. And that is exactly what he is doing. He says that he is holding out to honour the memory of the bands lead singer, Jim Morrison, who died in Paris from a suspected heroin overdose in 1971, aged 27.
People lost their virginity to this music, got high for the first time to this music, Densmore, 60, told the Los Angeles Times in an interview that has astonished an industry more accustomed to performers launching bottled water brands than objecting to the capitalist exploitation of their art.
Ive had people say kids died in Vietnam listening to this music. On stage, when we played these songs, they felt mysterious and magic. Thats not for rent, the drummer said.
Densmore recalls the day in 1965 that Morrison discovered that his colleagues had allowed the song Light My Fire to be used in an advertisement for a Buick Opel car. The singer vowed to take a sledgehammer to a Buick on stage unless the deal was cancelled.
Five years later the Doors agreed in writing that the band would have to approve unanimously any music licensing agreement. It is a contract that the other members regret.
The sanctity of rock music in advertising ended in the 1980s, when Nike used Revolution by the Beatles. Since then, Paul McCartney has sung for Fidelity Investments; a dancing silhouette of Bono has been used to promote Apples iPod; and the Rolling Stones have played the blues for Ameriquest mortgages. Even Bob Dylans The Times They are a-Changin can be heard in an unlikely advertisement for the health firm Kaiser Permanente.
One of the few to hold out is the experimental blues singer Tom Waits, who recently said that corporations suck the life and meaning from the songs and impregnate them with promises of a better life with their product.
Recent offers to the Doors include a reported $15 million (£8.4 million) from Cadillac for the rights to use Break on Through to promote its 4x4s. Densmore said that he could not sell a song to a company that was polluting the world. In the end Cadillac stuck with the slogan Break Through, but used Led Zeppelins 1972 Rock and Roll instead.
Apple offered the Doors another $4 million for Light My Fire, but again Densmore said no.
The other Doors, Robby Krieger, 59, and Ray Manzarek, 66, are not happy. The last time the trio met was at the Los Angeles County Superior Courthouse last year, when a judge ruled that Krieger and Manzarek could not use the name Doors of the 21st Century during a world tour. The musicians changed their name to D21C. But they may still have to pay Densmore a percentage of the estimated $8 million receipts.
Manzarek has cited the court battle as evidence that Densmore does care about money. John is going to get about a million dollars for doing nothing, he told the Los Angeles Times. He gets an equal share as us, and we were out there working. A free million bucks. Thats a gig Id like.
Others have pointed out that in the 1970s Densmore agreed to sell Riders on the Storm to the Pirelli tyre company. He later vowed never to be tempted by money-lust again.
I gave every cent to charity, he said. Jims ghost was in my ear, and I felt terrible. If I needed proof that it was the wrong thing to do, I got it.
We already told 'em.
Welcome aboard, FRiend.
"As somebody who makes a chunk of his living for royalties earned on works written that are protected under copyright, I take issue with your statement that the copyright on the Doors' songs "should have expired a long time ago." Why? They wrote the songs, the songs have given a lot of people a lot of entertainment value and continue to--why shouldn't they continue to profit off their labor? Why should the product of their work be given away free any more than yours or anybody else's?"
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As an inventor with patents, I think that copyrights should also expire in 17 or 20 years. If we allowed all patents to run forever we would be living something like the early 1900's. The government protected patent allows the inventor exclusive rights for 17 years while they make the most of their invention by exclusion, which motivates others to come up with their NEW ideas.
How would you like it if the only airplanes in the world were made by Wright Bros. Air? Or the only car by the French company? Or the only light bulbs available were from Edison Electric?
But Noooooo. Music is artsy-fartsy, and we just can't let the libs lose their only form of income - because they are too stupid to figure out a new song in under 17 years.
"Light My Fire" came out in 67 and "Rock and Roll" in 71.
Big difference between being used to set a particular mood in a blockbuster movie set in the same era and being the background music in selling a car or some such crap........Apocalypse Now was a great movie and worthy of the Doors.
FWIW, almost every commercial out there on TV nowadays has an oldies song in the backdrop and more than likely some chump or chumpstress with a British accent.......
You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
If I didn't say to you
Goodyear Eagle is my tire
Well done!
I've got to wonder if a Doors song is going to sell $15 million worth of Cadillacs. I never figured Caddy buyers and Doors fans to be in the same target market, but whatever...
Heck, I didn't even know he was sick.
Gotta love those doors.... such useful things, unless you have a sentimental drummer!
Worthy of the Doors,..yep
Great movie,...nope.
Hey, I realize Jim Morrison was no paragon of virtue, but the Doors were OK as far as I am concerned. And this drummer seems to be some ignorant lefty environut, but I admire him anyway for not "selling out." When I hear great rock songs being talked over in commercials I get a bit irritated. The epitome had to be that Zeppelin song, Rock n' Roll, is a frickin' Cadillac commercial of all things. Give me a break!
I wonder how rappers will resolve these kinds disputes when they (if) grow old?
"Now if you want to talk about bass players,........"
HEY! Without us bass players you'd just be flailing away while the lead guitar has it's orgasm.
Now if you want to talk about keyboard players..........
Now, now. As a bassist one of the things about The Doors that kept me from liking them was that they didn't have one! In the 80's no one cared who played bass as it was all about big hair and leads. Only recently has the importance of a rock-solid bassist been recognized after it died out in the 70's. I'd be delighted to sell some of my stuff to promote someone's car or anything else for that matter. Yes has had 4 or 5 drummers in their illustrious career but everyone knows Chris Squire plays bass for them - and always has (since he owns the name after all). Singers are far more self-important anyway - and I sing as well. They had some fine music, The Doors, but I find them grossly overrated and they'd have no staying power at all had Morrisson not cooked his brains. Death is great for your rep.
Damn I loved that band! Mark Sandman RIP!
Wow. The Doors's music made me sick but I didn't know people died from it.
who's beat does everyone play off of?
You know, I thought for sure you were gonna say:
"Yes has had 4 or 5 drummers in their illustrious career but everyone knows Bill Bruford plays percussion for them."
Two jokes, see, since Bill is a great drummer and... he... doesn't play... for...
Nevermind.
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